3944. EBB to Anna Brownell Jameson
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 23, 163–166.
Florence.
December 26. [1856] [1]
My ever dear friend, To have three letters from you, all unanswered, seems really to discredit me to myself, while it gives such proof of your kindness & affection. No other excuse is to be offered, .. but the sort of interruption which sadness gives– I really had not the heart to sit down & talk of my ‘Aurora’ even in reference to the pleasure & honour brought to me by the expression of your opinion .. when the beloved friend associated with that poor book was lost to me in this world, .. gone where perhaps he no longer sympathizes with pleasure or honor of mine, now, .. for nearly the first time. Perhaps– After such separations, the sense of distance is the thing felt first. And certainly, my book at least, is naturally saddened to me, & the success of it wholesomely spoiled.
Yet your letter, my dearest Moña Nina, arrived in time to give me great, great pleasure,—true pleasure indeed,—& most tenderly do I thank you for it. I have had many of such letters from persons loved less, & whose opinions had less weight,—and you will like to hear that in a fortnight after publication, Chapman had to go to press with the second edition. In fact the kind of reception given to the book has much surprised me, as I was prepared for an outcry of quite another kind, & extravagances in a quite opposite sense. This has been left however to the Press, [2] the Post, [3] & the Tablet, .. who calls Aurora ‘a brazen-faced woman,’ and brands the story as a romance in the manner of Frederic Soulié [4] .. in reference, of course, to its gross indecency.
I cant leave this subject without noticing (by the way) what you say of the likeness to the catastrophe of Jane Eyre. I have sent to the library here for Jane Eyre (but have’nt got it yet) in order to refresh my memory on this point—but, as far as I do recall the facts, the hero was monstrously disfigured & blinded in a fire the particulars of which escape me, [5] & the circumstance of his being hideously scarred is the thing impressed chiefly on the reader’s mind: certainly it remains innermost in mine. Now, if you read over again those pages of my poem, you will find that the only injury received by Romney in the fire, was from a blow, & from the emotion produced by the circumstances of the fire. Not only, did he not lose his eyes in the fire, but he describes the ruin of his house, as no blind man could. [6] He was standing there, a spectator. Afterwards he had a fever, .. and the eyes, the visual nerve, perished .. showing no external stain [7] —perished as Milton’s did. I believe that a great shock on the nerves might produce such an effect,—in certain constitutions,—& the reader in referring as far back as Marian’s letter (when she avoided the marriage), may observe that his eyes had never been strong, .. that her desire had been to read his notes at night, and save them. [8] For it was necessary, I thought, to the bringing out of my thought, that Romney should be mulcted in his natural sight– The Examiner says that. [9] Tell me if on looking into the book again, you modify your feeling at all–
Dearest Moña Nina, you are well now, are you not?– Your last dear letter seems brighter altogether, and seems to promise, too, that quiet in Italy will restore the tone of your spirits & health. Do you know I almost advise you (though it is like speaking against my heart) to go from Marseilles to Rome straight, and to give us the spring. The spring is beautiful in Florence, & then I should be free to go & see the pictures with you & enjoy you in the in-door & out of door way, both. How sad that poor Geraldine [sic] should again have lost her baby!—— [10]
You will have heard (we heard it only three days ago) how our kindest friend who never forgot us, remembered us in his will. The legacy is eleven thousand pounds, [11] —six thousand, five hundred, of which are left to Robert, .. marking delicately a sense of trust, .. for which I am especially grateful– Of course this addition to our income will free us from the pressure which has been upon us hitherto: but oh how much sadness goes to making every gain in this world!– It has been a sad, sad Christmas to me. A great gap is left among friends—& the void catches the eyes of the soul, whichever way it turns. He has been to me in much what my father might have been—& now the place is empty twice over–
You are yet unconvinced. You will be convinced one day, I think. Here are wide-awake men, (some of them, most anti spiritual, to this hour, as to theory) who agree in giving testimony to facts of one order. You shall hear their testimony when you come. As to the “supernatural”, if you mean by that, the miraculous, the suspension of natural law, I certainly believe in it no more than you do. What happens, happens according to a natural law,—the development of which only becomes fuller & more observable. The movement, such as it is, is accelerated, & the whole structure of society in America is becoming affected, more or less, for good or evil, .. & very often for evil, through the extreme tenacity or slowness of those who ought to be leaders in every revolution of thought, but who, on this subject, are pleased to leave their places to the unqualified & the fanatical. Wise men will be sorry presently– When Faraday was asked to go & see Hume, .. to see a heavy table lifted without the touch of a finger, .. he answered that he “had not time.” Time has its “revenges.” [12]
I am very glad that dear Mr Procter has had some of these last benefits of one beloved by so many– What a loss, what a loss! Was there no bequest to yourself? [13] We have heard scarcely anything–
May God bless you, dearest Moña Nina, with the blessings of years old & new– Robert’s love.
Your ever attached
Ba–
Dont prepay– It is of no use– We pay the same. [14] Now are you setting your face to Italy? Do not loiter.
Address: Angleterre viâ France– / Mrs Jameson / Ealing / London.
Publication: LEBB, II, 245–247.
Manuscript: Wellesley College.
1. Year provided by postmark.
3. In a brief dismissive review of Aurora Leigh, The Morning Post of 15 December 1856 pronounced EBB “absolutely unintelligible” and went on to quote a handful of lines as evidence thereof, concluding: “We confess that these are things which utterly transcend our comprehension. We know not what they mean, and we believe, in our conscience, that Mrs. Browning does not know herself” (p. 3). For the full text of this review, see p. 323.
5. EBB refers to Edward Rochester, who is blinded and crippled in the fire that destroys his great house, Thornfield Hall, as recounted in volume three of Jane Eyre (1847), chapter 10.
6. See Aurora Leigh, VIII, 942–991.
7. See Aurora Leigh, IX, 563–581.
8. Cf. Aurora Leigh, IV, 976–977: “At hoping I should learn to write your notes / And save the tiring of your eyes, at night.”
9. The anonymous reviewer of Aurora Leigh in The Examiner (29 November 1856, p. 756) concluded a positive notice by observing: “Thus remembering what is typified by each of the lovers, we may detect an obvious purpose in at last presenting Romney as the husband of Aurora, blind and dependent upon her eyes for his perceptions.” For the complete text of this review, see pp. 294–296.
10. We are unable to further elaborate on the loss of Gerardine Macpherson’s baby. She and her husband, Robert Macpherson, had two children at this time: William (“Guglielmo”) Hamilton (b. 1853) and Joseph (“Giuseppe”), (b. 1855).
11. The Brownings received £10,500; see SD1993.
12. Cf. Twelfth Night, V, 1, 376–377. EBB may also have in mind RB’s poem “Time’s Revenges” (1845), which she read in manuscript and wrote notes on (see vol. 11, p. 388).
13. Mrs. Jameson received £100; Procter, £6,500.
14. For postage; see letter 3167, note 3.
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